He has remained a top-choice candidate
to replace Russia's current ambassador to Washington, Sergei
Kislyak, despite U.S. President Donald Trump having won the Oval Office. Kislyak also served as Deputy Foreign Minister between 2003
and 2008, when he was posted to the United States.

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Antonov was born in the Siberian city of Omsk in 1955, and joined the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1978. He previously worked with American officials as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' head of security and disarmament, holding high-level talks on reducing the countries' nuclear stockpiles.

He was appointed Russia's deputy defense minister by President Vladimir Putin in 2011, and promoted again to deputy foreign minister in December 2016.

The new U.S. administration is also yet to name its new ambassador to Russia. Among the potential candidates are former U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Burt, and Trump advisor Carter Page.